


Hospitalisation

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: Time Travelling Son [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aftermath, Descriptions of Physical Injury, Early Tony & Rhodey Friendship, Explanations, Gen, Hospitalization, Not Peggy Friendly, Team Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21783202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: While he's in the hospital, following his ordeal, Tony gets some information on his attack.And he's not the only one.
Relationships: Howard Stark & Maria Stark & Tony Stark, Howard Stark & Original Character(s), James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, Peggy Carter & Original Female Character(s), Tony Stark & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Time Travelling Son [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565638
Comments: 38
Kudos: 763





	Hospitalisation

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

Tony had felt the sting in his neck before he went down.

His eyelids had become heavy but hadn’t closed completely as his body had also became too heavy. His super-genius mind rushed, trying to work out what’d happened to it and how to react. He couldn’t move and the taste of bile was on his tongue. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

Simply put, Tony was terrified.

Then the front door opened and in walked his dad, Jarvis, and some woman he’d never met before. She was younger than his dad and Jarvis – about his mom’s age...maybe slightly older. But she was the one who noticed that something was wrong. It was her who’d first come over to him and felt his pulse, and let his father and Jarvis in on it.

And it was her who made his dad and Jarvis aware of the problem and then pulled the blanket over to catch the vomit that dribbled out of his mouth. Then his dad put a hand on his shoulder to keep him upright. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Then it was her who’d spotted the woman who’d attacked him, and questioned her.

And then dislocated her shoulder before throwing her down a flight of stairs.

That was funny.

Of course then his mom came down and had a fit.

He passed out sometime on the way back. Sure, his dad was there when he woke up, but it looked like the woman he didn’t know yet had forced him to be here. More than once, he’d seen her talking to Howard and looking angry about something. It was the first time Tony had ever seen his father look shame-faced about anything.

‘So...who is she?’ Tony asked his mother, who had sat in near-constant vigil at his bedside, once he’d been moved from treatment to observation. Apparently, the drug this Peg woman had shot into him was unknown and the other woman was suspected to be right.

_‘I think it was experimental. She seems unaware of the damage its done.’_

‘Hazel Pertinicle,’ his mom said. ‘She was originally Hazel Jones back when your father first knew her. Your dad re-established contact with her because he needed her help.’

Naturally. Tony couldn’t imagine what for though.

Either way, Hazel dropped by a few times to see how he was doing.

Tony liked her. She was sassy and sarcastic and more prone to explaining things to him than Howard or his mom, or even Jarvis had ever been. In fact, it was her who told him who this Peg Carter was and why she’d felt entitled to do what she did. And he could tell from her tone of voice that she had a special kind of hate for the woman.

‘You’ve probably heard of her as Betty Carver,’ Hazel had said. ‘She always hated that depiction of herself. I never liked her. She was violent; preferred to hit first and ask later. She always went too far too often, but she got away with it because she could play the “you’re sexist” card like a pro.’

‘Oh,’ his mom said. ‘So it wasn’t just me.’

Hazel had smiled at her. ‘You didn’t like her either?’

‘I wouldn’t say that,’ his mother said diplomatically. But she’d never been one to admit that she didn’t like somebody. It was bad for PR to be heard saying that. ‘But her sway over all those people, including Howard, definitely made me uncomfortable.’

‘Well,’ Hazel had said, ‘you won’t have to worry about that anymore – not since Howard found out she’s been using his money to imprison enhanced people because they don’t wanna work for her. That’s actually what this was about. Howard cut her off, so she was gonna come in and try to use her usual steamroller tactics to get the money back.’

Tony frowned as he heard that. That seemed...unbelievably childish. If that was what Real Life Betty Carver amounted to, what did that say about Real Life Cap?

‘So she felt the need to drug Tony?’ his mom demanded.

‘Probably simply because he was there.’

And that was just one conversation.

Another entailed dislocating arms. Tony had asked, eager to know how she’d done it. His mom hadn’t been sure, but Hazel had assured her, ‘It’s nothing. I told my son this, and my grandkids the same – both at a younger age than Tony is now.’

She’d then turned to Tony.

‘What I did was the harder way to do it, but I’ve had years to perfect it – creepy as that sounds. But let’s just say I’ve had an eventful life.’ She lifted a hand to her shoulder. ‘The shoulder is the joint most dislocated in the human body because it’s so easy to do. When we intentionally dislocate someone’s joint, we generally go for the shoulder. There are two major reasons why. Can you take a stab in the dark and guess?’

‘It’s easier to do and it takes out the whole arm?’ Tony asked.

‘Good.’ Hazel smiled. ‘The wrist is actually hard to dislocate because of its function. But if you dislocate the elbow, they still have use of the upper part of the arm. The shoulder, however, makes the whole limb either painful and difficult to use or unusable. It’s even better if you can get them on the ground before doing it. In which case you just rotate the arm back outside its limits – the faster the better – and it’ll pop right out. Of course, it could break instead. Either way, they’re on the ground in agony and you can high-tail it outta there.’ She grinned almost evilly. ‘And if they land right, like Carter did, they can’t get up by themselves.’

His mom winced. ‘Hazel.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I just got this strong sense of schadenfreude doing it to her.’

Tony had grinned at that.

Tony also grinned when Rhodey came to visit him.

‘So what happened?’

‘Oh, some bitch dad cut off was trying to make him fund her again,’ Tony waved it off.

Rhodey winced. ‘So...who was that woman I just saw leaving the room?’

‘Oh, she was an old friend of dad’s.’ Tony smirked. ‘Apparently, he didn’t used to be an asshole. She’s been kicking him a hell of a lot since she’s been here.’

‘Is she the one that first noticed that you were drugged?’

‘Yeah. I was actually surprised. I asked her about it.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Way she put it, it’s just the differences between the three of them that had her noticing first.’

‘What’s that mean?’

‘Well, Jarvis doesn’t have much of an eye for detail away from his job. And, yeah, I knew that. He’ll polish everything until you can see your face in it. And all the food he puts in front of us may as well be a piece of art.’

‘What about...?’ Rhodey trailed off.

‘Dad?’ Tony nodded. ‘Yeah. She pointed out that you give him a machine and he’ll see everything about it – I’m the same – but put him in any other setting and he’s...’ he barked out a laugh. ‘...“as blind as a bat”. Hazel’s the one who had the attention to detail I needed in that moment. While dad and Jarvis first thought I’d just fallen asleep playing video games, Hazel picked up everything that suggested I’d been drugged.’

‘Such as?’

‘Well, I was drooling, for starters. Apparently, I peed myself too.’

‘She smelt it?’

‘She smelt it. The first thing came down to gender. That's what she told me. Women have just evolved to be more sensitive to smells like piss and shit. Then she noticed my eyelids were flickering, but not like I was dreaming. Then she came over and took my pulse.’

‘And that was it?’ Rhodey asked.

‘That was it.’

Still, since his...encounter with Carter, Tony had been given a lot to think about.

***

After Rhodey left his friend in the hospital, he went for a walk in Central Park.

He’d been trying to blow off steam. He didn’t expect to find that Hazel woman feeding the ducks. There was a look on her face that made him think she’d come to the park for the same reason he had. Curious, in spite of himself, he walked over to her. She paused, briefly, and glanced up at him. Then she smiled.

‘You’re Tony’s friend, aren’t you?’

‘Yeah. Just call me Rhodey.’

Hazel nodded. ‘Quite a bit older than him, aren’t you? Not that I have anything against those friendships. I’m just curious.’

Rhodey grinned. ‘I met him during MIT orientation day. Once my superiors found out, they started pushing. Personally, I just find him kind of...’Well, there was something endearing about the pint-sized genius.

‘Ah, yeah.’ Hazel nodded. ‘I get that. Starks are massive cinnamon rolls. Even Howard was back in the day. These days, he’s more of a cinnamon roll that’d been trampled underfoot but is still somehow mostly intact.’

‘By this woman?’ Rhodey guessed.

‘Peggy Carter, yes, for the most part.’ Hazel pulled a face. ‘She certainly started it. Typical abuser! That’s why she’s reacting so badly to losing both his money, and to him.’

Rhodey snorted as he recalled the news story he’d seen showing Carter striding through a sea of cameras, trying to hide her face but failing just enough for everyone to see her sucked-a-lemon expression. There were also a whole bunch of Men In Black around her, trying to shield her, but it was clear they’d been out of their depth.

Odds were, the whole bunch were used to Tony’s dad taking the heat from the press.

‘There’s something I don’t understand,’ Rhodey said.

Hazel looked at him and nodded for him to go on.

‘What exactly did Carter hope to accomplish by breaking into the Stark house and drugging their teenaged boy? She can’t have thought Howard would be cool with it after that.’

‘You underestimate Carter’s sense of self-righteousness,’ Hazel remarked dryly. ‘She’s always been a firm believer in the idea that the ends justifies the means. As for the drug,’ she tore a large chunk of bread out and threw it in, ‘that was just irresponsible.’ They watched the ducks fight over the hunk of bread. ‘It was experimental and she had no idea what it did.’

‘Then why did she use it?’ Rhodey asked.

‘Because she thought she knew what it did. She clearly thought it was just a knock-out drug. But you sure as hell won’t catch her admitting she did anything wrong. She’ll turn to attacking Howard. The closest she’ll come to admitting she did something wrong will be,’ her voice turned mocking, ‘“if you hadn’t withdrawn, I wouldn’t have had to do it”.’

‘ _Had_ to do it?’ Rhodey demanded incredulously.

‘Peggy Carter, ladies and gentlemen!’


End file.
